Our Caeliolic Heritage i11 Texas
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"on April 3 at nightfall I saw a group of mounted men, numbering about one hundred, composed of Americans and troops from La Bahia, Alamo, and Bexar, commanded by Antonio Delgado, corporal in the militia com- pany of Bexar, and Prado of the Alamo Company. They brought with them saddled horses and ordered the Governor and the other officers to mount." 12 Evidently, Americans participated in the execution of the prisoners, which stemmed from mob action rather than from official orders. Changed attitude of G,1tierre1:. The fall of San Antonio and the execution.of the Governor and the other officers left Texas in undisputed control of Gutierrez and his cohorts. Some three hundred men had man- aged to escape. Had Gutierrez followed up his victory, he could have marched without opposition either to Monclova or to Monterrey. Instead of pushing his advantages, Gutierrez decided to halt and organize a gov- ernment for the new Republic of Texas. He considered that a declaration of independence would give some official semblance to his position. With the capture of San Antonio, he immediately began to assume a much more independent attitude towards his American collaborators and made it plain that he had no intention of cooperating in any scheme di- rected toward the annexation of Texas to the United States as a part of Louisiana. This reversal in attitude is revealed in the cordial letter to his friend Shaler, written shortly after he had issued a declaration of inde- pendence and had drafted a constitution setting up a provisional govern- ment. He was not hostile to the United States or his American friends. But he felt that their active cooperation in the struggle for independence was no longer needed. · In transmitting copies of these two documents, he solicited the aid of Shaler in encouraging immigrants to the new re- public, but studiously refrained from mentioning the subject of military aid. Herein may be found the explanation for the change of attitude in Shaler towards Gutierrez, as well as for the disappointment of Gover- nor Claiborne, who had so conveniently winked at the numerous infrac- tions of neutrality." 12 Testimony of Guillermo Navarro, Laredo, April 8, 181 3, H istoria, Operaciones tU Guerra, Arredondo, Ill, 249-250, A.G. t,f. Shaler developed a rabid hatred for Gutierrez after his success in San Antonio. His cause was not helped by the un- favorable reports of Kemper and the other officers who left San Antonio in disgust shortly after its capture, not because of the execution of the prisoners, but because of the slight offered them when they did not figure prominently in the government of the new republic. SJGuticrrez to Shaler, San Fernando de Bexar, April 18, 181 3, State Department RecM"d..s, N. A. W.; Claiborne to Anonymous, New Orleans, June 21, 1813, in Row- land, Claiborne Letter Books, VI, 228.
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